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It feels like a decade ago since the incident. I had heard time and time again about the dangers of the roads. The high injury and death rates caused in crashes. You read about it in the newspaper or online all the time these days, car collisions, people being ran over, drunk drivers losing control or terrible weather causing the accidents. So many variations out there on ways to die due to technology. 

The day had seemed like no other, walking - almost running - to school with my two friends. We had been running late that day so it was a mad rush to get to school. We reached the busiest junction on our path towards hours of learning. A three way crossing, made up of eight lanes of cars all going in different directions. Some rushing, most likely they were like us - late - while others were taking it slow and sticking to slightly under the speed limit. These lights took ages to stop and let us cross, every day it was averagely a five minute wait here. Neither of the trio noticed a boy, maybe a year younger then us, run out from behind us and right into the middle of the road. Just at that moment, a shining red car sped forward and up the hill. Colliding into the boy as a white van swerved out of the way - causing the traffic to come to a stand still. 

I'd never seen something remotely close to this, maybe re-enactments on television but not the real thing. This young boy was almost flying in the air - and for some reason I just remember one of his shoes going off to the other side of the road - and crashing down to the ground in a harsh sound of pain. The impact had knocked him unconscious as people rushed out of their cars to see what was going on. The driver of the red car didn't look back, she or he drove straight off and away from the scene but the white van driver managed to catch their number plate. I never thought someone could be so selfish, leaving someone they had just wounded - maybe even killed. I scrambled into my bag for my phone and remember dialling 999 as quickly as possible. My mind had gone blank and I felt numb. Trying to remember the street name seemed impossible at the time. While I rattled off information to the emergency services the boys eyes opened and he was in a lot of pain and couldn't seem to move. Ten minutes later the ambulance came zooming down the road and paramedics jumped out to assist the boy. (I later found out he broken ribs and broken his left leg. But nothing life threatening.) I felt ill watching it all unfold in front of me, watching him being driven off into the distance to get treated. Police officers took my friends and my name down and asked us what we saw. Teachers from my school came down and rushed us on towards the school building. Allowing us time to sit in a small room to calm down after what we had just seen. However, we couldn't seem to stop crying. The whole thing had shook us up. I personally couldn't stop replaying the image of him being hit in my head and every time I did I felt sadder and sadder. 

The headteacher came through and spoke briefly to us before telling us to go back to class - at this point we were all in gym - but we were still all shook up about it. I was pale in the face and had never felt so upset and emotional before. My teacher took me aside and said she couldn't believe I was still in school after having witnessed it. If it wasn't thanks to her, I would of had a whole day of feeling miserable. Everyone kept asking me to tell them what happened and every single time I explained the story I found myself tearing up. 

This event really changed my view on just how dangerous it really is to cross a road before the lights change. I took away from the whole experience that it is safe to just spend the few minutes it takes for the green man to come up before walking, or looking both ways before crossing a road. You may be in a rush one day and think 'I don't have time to wait' but a few minutes is better then being injured, or worse. So think twice before you cross, because I know I will.